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tlsp dtw trip report

2016-07-26 - 7:52 a.m.

It has been some time since I've stepped out of my cave, but I'm back with another thrilling adventure. This very brief trip report is about my visit to Detroit to see The Last Shadow Puppets so there must be only a very small number of people in the known universe interested in this subject matter. Just a reminder that this is my diary, not a public service, so if anybody doesn't like it or them, they are welcome to move on to the next website...

Some time ago I decided to switch from earning frequent flyer miles (which no longer had such a great pay off) to earning money in a new endeavor which is going along OK. Heh. To give myself the most incentive to work on the new thing, I decided that in the future I will just always fly first/business class. So all is going smoothly and, actually, as it happens it turned out I had enough miles still left on Delta to get a nonstop lunch flight in first from MSY to DTW. So here is the story of my day. Also I wanted to give myself an extra day to get there because it's just asking for trouble if you don't. I didn't want to bring down tornadoes on Detroit or anything, they've had enough troubles. So I left on Monday, and here's the story of my day.

DH drove me over the lake on a beautiful morning with some interesting clouds. No Brown Boobies at mile marker 16 though. I am the only person left in Louisiana who hasn't seen those freakin' Brown Boobies!!!

I know the world is going to hell, and we should all remain in our homes and avoid all public gatherings for fear of being gunned down by mad men, but nonetheless...as I rolled my little bag through the airport I had a wonderful feeling of well-being. Maybe it was just the coffee kicking in. That little bit of The Strokes lyric went through my head, "The room is on fire, and she's combing her hair." Oh well.

There was a very, very, VERY large tree roach in the D corridor. I'm just saying. It was as large as a mouse.

So the flight MSY - DTW. They loaded only two bottles of Bailey's. I drank them both. I didn't realize they were the only two bottles until I'd already drunk them. Oh well. You have to work fast in this world.

It was a lunch flight. I got the sliders. They were actually good. Kinda like two little hamburgers with a piece of cheese. I put some of the potato salad on them instead of trying to tear open endless packages of mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise.

The flight attendant is learning close-up magic, and she did some tricks in first class. So that was a little...weird. Actually, she's pretty good, considering how close we were. It really did look like magic. She just seemed a little nervous in front of the crowd.

We landed half an hour early, and they actually had a gate for us so we got off the plane early. I found my way to meeting place for the van but I was the only one there. So we went over somewhere else and waited. Apparently there was a big group from Minnesota, and their flight was delayed. After, eh, I don't know, a half hour or so, they drifted out to ask if there were liquor stores in Detroit. "There's probably a few," the driver says. Heh. Since I was in no hurry, I said they could feel to stop along the way. I mean, it was a liquor store but it sold chicken because, I dunno, Michigan law, they have to sell food if they sell booze. So you can see we all have learned something new.

I checked into my hotel, and the computer remembered the hotel! Can you believe that? It has been five years since the farewell gambling tour, but evidently this little computer will never forget...

It was a beautiful day, and originally I intended to walk over to the venue but then I discovered that the People Mover now comes right into this building so... I just rode over to that stop and then found the place and it all took very little time. So it's going to be super convenient coming and going tonight.

It stays afternoon a long time this far north, but eventually it was cool enough to sit in an open air cafe in Greektown and have a glass wine and a gyro. Then I strolled around a bit and eventually went back to the casino in hopes of finding a martini. They didn't seem to have that kind of place on a Monday night so I ended up at the casino bar playing Jacks or Better. I won $30 which paid for all of my drinks plus my dinner at the gyro place. I guess if you haven't gambled in five years, the gambling gods will try to win you back with a little gift.

It's another beautiful day. Think I'll go down to the river for a bit.

later

Did quite a bit of strolling around town, and I feel I'm beginning to get to know where everything is.

Funny sight: On the riverfront there's a little stand of fountains for little kids to splash in, and a black swallowtail species was playing in the water, kind of flying in and out of the streamers.

A shrimp po-boy for lunch, although not (of course) as good as ours. Some kind of orange liqueur Irish Coffee drink for dessert that was second to none. The rebuilding of Detroit is far from complete, and I sometimes felt as if I encountered more construction workers than residents but, at one point, I did find the picnic spot where they had the three pretty violinists playing tunes...

later

I'm typing this the morning after. The show went by fast, and I never got around to taking any pictures, but I hope to have some good links later...

I would have said these boys are all about the wretched excess but evidently they've been working out. Be that as it may, for my bit of excess before the show I found the foo-foo bar and had a dirty martini with some kind of citrus shrimp ceviche. Since it was early (happy hour) it was cheap. Actually everything seemed to be pretty cheap. Despite the pretty weather and the blue water, I don't think they've made DTW a tourist destination yet. One guy at the bar pointed to the foo-foo bottle nobody was drinking out of and said it cost $2000 to stock that bottle in his liquor store, and then the other guy claimed he was friends with some guy who was king of some country and they drank that stuff and anyway it didn't matter if they spent $2,800 a bottle because "women don't mind spending money on what they like." This women did not open her mouth. I just listened and laughed.

Took the people mover and got there a bit early so I went over to the bar, where I kid thee not-- the guy checked my ID before he gave me my wrist band. Most of the crowd, maybe ummmm 90% was probably underage but still... anyway he said I could get a free poster after the show but I forgot what he looked like so I didn't go run him down and hold him to that promise. Everyone was super nice though. I had a Maker's Mark in the bar and then I found my seat because I'm not about to push and shove with a bunch of 17 year olds with this knee. But I had a great view, right in the center. Most of the people up there were I think parents who had kids down on the floor so they weren't super knowledgeable but at least they kept themselves out of my line of view-- which was great, since I had a seat right in the middle. Also I had a bottomless cup of Diet Pepsi.

Cam Avery sang for about 30. He spared us the 11-minute, "Baby, it's you" but he mostly did a Vegas lounge singer schtick. The by far best part of the show was the last song, "John the Regulator."

I knew Alex was going to appear in the balcony because 1) Instagram and 2) I could see some semi-official peeps buzzing in a dark corner of the balcony-- and then suddenly somehow he was right there on the balcony with us to sing the opening song, "Dream Synopsis." Then Miles on the main stage took over the opening part of "Used to Be My Girl" until Alex could run down and take over. Although I must say, for the most part, the concert really belonged to Miles. He seemed to take the lead more than usual. Which was lucky for me, since he doesn't really come to America and it might be my only chance to see him. In fact, a couple of times I was just filled with an overwhelming sense of amazement that I was actually there and this was really happening and-- oh! the acoustics were really great. I couldn't believe how caught up I was in the music. Also, I was too caught up in watching and listening to all the silly little dances and drama and posturing, and I didn't write down the setlist, but I'll link it later when someone posts it. Basically, they played everything you'd expect, ha ha ha, plus they closed the main set with a new song to me, "Nitroglycerine," which I really liked a lot. It was a natural for them, very energetic. Great choice.

When they came back, Alex's voice was a little shaky for the first few notes of EYCTE, so I think maybe it wasn't my imagination that they were resting his voice a little and letting Miles sing more. Then came "Standing Next to You." I followed the tour enough to know Alex no longer plays the tambourine or shares the mic while Miles takes the lead on that one. But we had a plot twist I for one did not see coming. Nope, totally didn't expect to see Cam Avery's hand on Alex Turner's ass while they're singing, "Standing Next to Me." The very last song was "The Meeting Place." So it was all the cute and all the feels. It was a full 90 minute show but it seemed like it all went by so fast!

It was super easy getting back on the people mover-- it's a circle and the arc of the circle from Grand Circus to Greektown is much shorter than from Greektown to Grand Circus so it was all over and, boom, and I was already back and too charged up to go right to sleep. So I went down to one of the Greek bars and had a glass of wine, and evidently there were a lot of speeches tonight for the presidential thing, and some commentators were yakking about it, and after a time the young woman bartender looked at me and said, "Did they just say Bill won it for her? Is that what I just heard?"
"Yep."
"Anything to avoid giving the woman the credit."

Finally I was able to sleep. Got up just now and had a turtle cheesecake for breakfast so... this vacation was in no way any part of a responsible health food program. And now I better go pack my bags...

later

I had time to eat at the noodle shop at the airport. There were two bottles of Woodford Reserve and two kinds of cookies on the plane in first class. And now I am very, very sleepy...